Rep. Keith Ellison on What the Democratic Party Needs to do Right Now

The two weeks since President's Trump's inauguration have made the opposing players exceedingly clear. On one side is the Trump White House and those in the federal government prepared to implement its policies swiftly and without critique. On the other side are vocal Americans prepared to resist in individual and organized efforts, in their professions, in courts, and in the streets. As Trump Versus the Resistance takes shape like a dystopic film, complete with A-list Hollywood casting, one character remains surprisingly marginal to the entire drama—the Democratic Party.

Sure, Democratic women from the House of Representatives and Senate showed up at the Women's March on Washington, but their insistence on each taking a turn at the microphone effectively delayed the event by more than half an hour. Senator Cory Booker has been seen at some of the key protests in the past two weeks, but he is attending not planning these events. It was acting Attorney General Sally Yates—an appointee, not an elected official—whose refusal to defend Trump's immigration order set the bar for personal integrity and defiance. No elected member of the Democratic Party tasked with reviewing President Trump's cabinet nominations has come close to doing anything as meaningful or memorable.

"You have to have Democratic activists who are working to knock on doors."

It is hard to imagine an entity in American politics more irrelevant right now than the Democratic Party. This is why the decision that the 447-member body of the Democratic National Committee will make when it meets in Atlanta on February 25to choose its next national party leader is crucial. Officially it is a crowded field of contenders, but in reality a two-man race. One frontrunner is former Obama Labor Secretary Tom Perez who earned the backing of Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday. Perez is well known and well liked among the existing party leaders. He is a known quantity likely to pursue a strategy very similar to the status quo.

The other front running candidate is Representative Keith Ellison of Minnesota. Representative Ellison was elected to the 5th district of Minnesota in 2006. Minnesota's 5th district includes Minneapolis and its suburbs, where immigration, growing racial diversity, class identity, and concerns about economic security mirror those animating current national anxieties. Ellison was the first Muslim and the first African American from the state of Minnesota elected to the U.S. Congress. If he is chosen to lead the DNC, it will likely represent a substantial change in direction for the national party.

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I talked with Ellison at about his vision for a renewed Democratic party. When Ellison speaks, he uses a few key words, repeatedly. These words are as revealing as any strategy memo for understanding how Ellison diagnoses the problems of the party and how he would seek to fix it.

"Precinct"

For Ellison, the Democratic Party is not a centralized national office crafting messages and sending out directives to unseen and unknown people who will get out the vote on Election Day. Ellison talks obsessively about precincts. "This has to happen at the precinct level, in Pennsylvania, in Peoria, and everywhere else, in every precinct level. You have to have Democratic activists who are working to knock on doors, engage people, draw folks in around a progressive agenda."

Just four days before the inauguration, Keith was in the town where I live, Winston-Salem, N.C. He was speaking to what might have seemed like an inconsequential crowd of a couple hundred folks for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday. A front-running DNC chair in a larger community could have commanded a much larger crowd. But Ellison's brother, Eric Ellison, is chair of Democratic Party for this little North Carolina county, and Keith Ellison knows its importance. While Clinton's camp repeatedly visited Charlotte and Raleigh—major cities with big airports—they only made one stop in Winston-Salem. Still, the county gave a win to Clinton and most other Democrats on the ballot. Ellison came to say thank you. He knows precincts, so he spent a big day, the King Holiday, speaking in a small but important place, because he believes small places are where the Democratic Party needs to plant the seeds for future wins.

"The Republicans have kicked our butts. When you talk to your rank and file Democrat or potential Democrat, they have no relationship with the DNC," Ellison explains. "We've got to make people feel, 'I'm a card-carrying Democrat. I am proud of it. I belong to my county unit over there, and we go there every month and have a meeting.' That's the kind of relationship we've got to build." He lists recent losses: more than 940 state legislative seats, nearly 20 gubernatorial seats. "We are down to seven elected secretaries of state. These are the official setting election laws. We have gotten crushed. We must rebuild from the precinct."

Keith Ellison hosting a town hall meeting at Detroit church last December

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"Trust"

In January, Vincent Toliver, a minor candidate for the DNC chair position, said that Ellison should be barred from the DNC chair position because Islam is not tolerant of equal rights for those who are gay. (Toliver was kicked out of the chairmanship race this week for these comments.)

Even in this political environment (Toliver's comments, Trump's immigration restrictions), Keith Ellison maintains a romanticism about politics. He tells me that people are truly all the same at their core. To illustrate the point, he tells me the story of visiting a refugee camp in Northern Kenya. "People were handing me love letters, to deliver to their sweethearts in Minneapolis. That takes trust." Before you can request money or votes or loyalty, Ellison says, a party must first develop trust.

"We can help black urban folks in Chicago get to know white rural folks in Kentucky."

It is a vision Ellison can discuss at length. "The Democratic Party could help us create a stronger sense of community," he says. "We can help black urban folks in Chicago get to know white rural folks in Kentucky. We're all Democrats, we all want to make a living, we all need health care, we all want to retire in dignity and have a future for our kids. What if we said, 'Our Democratic Party has to make sure that the party is in touch with every single person who lives in this building, or on this block, or in this neighborhood.' What if we looked at that little guy with the saggy pants not as a threat, but as a potential canvasser who's going to help us win an election? Then, when he says, 'Hey, man. No, I'm not in school. You know, I never was good at school. I don't like school.' We respond by saying, 'You know what? We're going to help get you enrolled in a GED program.' That's what happens when you put people together. You build foundations of trust."

"Communicate"

Ellison is determined to change how the DNC communicates. How, he wonders, can the DNC (just over 1 million Twitter followers) effectively compete with President Trump (more than 23 million Twitter followers). He imagines robust and vibrant social media platforms that are neither contrived nor top-down in approach. Think DNC meets Black Lives Matter rather than Hillary 2016. But Ellison is thinking beyond social media. He hosts a podcast and is starting to imagine how technology like this and other user-generated media can allow local Democratic organizations to share meetings, candidates, issues, platforms, successes, and stories. Communicating with one another is a way to build trust precinct by precinct.

And then there is the house meeting, an idea as old as organizing itself. "You're gonna get together to talk about Democratic Party stuff," Ellison says. "And in the beginning, you're gonna complain about how you hate Trump. Fine, but then communicate, get to know each other, go around the table. This is going to build trust and relationships. Don't walk past anyone in a grocery store who is in your house meeting without stopping to check on them."

Representative Keith Ellison hopes to make the Democratic Party relevant in the dramatic battles of the Trump presidency. His vision is grounded in communication, trust, and local efforts, with a broad national constituency. As we were finishing up our conversation I asked him, as I always do, if there was anything I missed. "Well, have you considered, running for office Melissa? I was just looking at the next time the North Carolina senate seat will be up for consideration." Yep, That is just what a party chair sounds like.

Melissa Harris-PerryAs editor-at-large, Melissa Harris-Perry acts as a guide to the stories, experiences, challenges, policies, and defining pop culture moments of women and girls of color.

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